Translation
history need not be an obscure subdiscipline. If studied
intelligently and critically, it can trace the past
of countless suppressed intermediaries whose work
might change our ideas of what cultures are, of how
linguistic borders operate, and of what kind of future
we can expect from globalization.
Starting
from the critical notion that we should be asking
questions of contemporary importance - and that
'importance' itself must be defined - Anthony Pym
sets about undoing many of the currently dominant
models of translation history.
He posits,
among much else, that the object of this history
should be translators as people, that researchers
are subjectively involved in their object, that
cultural systems are based on social will, that
translators work in intercultural spaces, and that
a model of cooperation through negotiation may be
applied to the way translators (and researchers)
work between cultures.
At the
same time, the proposed methodology is eminently
constructive, showing ways in which many empirical
techniques can be developed and applied: clear illustrations
are given of corpus selection, working definitions,
deceptive statistics, and the construction of networks
and regimes, incorporating elaborate examples drawn
from medieval and modernist fields, as well as finding
space for notes on practical problems like funding
research.
Finding
its focus in historical debates, this book cannot
help but create contemporary debate: its arguments
seek not only to revitalize the historical study
of translation but also to develop the wider concerns
of intercultural studies.
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